Fashion is a multi-billion dollar global enterprise that encompasses everything from the clothes we wear to our homes and cars. It influences the way we live and is influenced by politics, economics and technology.
The word “fashion” has two meanings as a noun and one as a verb (Oxford Dictionaries). It can be used to describe the current style of clothing or hair, decoration or behaviour.
Etymology:
The first variant of the word “fashion” was in Latin as “factio” and it derived from the verb “facio” which meant to make. It then moved onto Old French and evolved into three different words: fazon, faceon and facon.
History of Fashion:
The concept of fashion has been around for as long as humankind has existed, but it’s only in the modern day that this industry has really grown. The rise of cheap, mass-manufactured ready-to-wear fashion in the 1960s brought about a revolution in the way we shop and our attitude towards it.
It changed the way we think about shopping and gave us an incentive to buy things we wouldn’t otherwise have thought of. However, it also encouraged people to waste more than they could have ever done and created a lot of unnecessary clothes.
Fashions are constantly changing, which can be a good thing for some. But it can also be a bad thing for others who are forced to constantly buy new items of clothing which they will likely discard before the season is over.